Adaptor: David Catlin
( from the stories of Lewis Carroll )
At: Lookkinglass, 821 N. Michigan
Phone: ( 312 ) 337-0665; $10-$58
Runs through: March 27
There are all sorts of magic at work in David Catlin's brilliant adaptation and direction of Lookkinglass Alice, now on jaw-dropping, eye-popping, dazzling display at Lookkinglass' Water Tower Water Works home. There's the magic that comes from the mind of Lewis Carroll, one of the more fanciful, genius, and disturbing minds to emerge from the Victorian age. It's upon Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass that this inspired, ethereal production is based.
There's also the magic that comes from a sure finger on the pulse of childhood innocence that seems to have taken possession of director/adaptor Catlin, who has captured and brought to life the awe-inspiring internal logic of Carroll's dream world, where the charming and charmed Alice experiences so many bizarre and otherworldly adventures, she makes Dorothy Gale look like the most pedestrian of tourists.
There's the magic of Lauren Hirte, whose formidable gifts endow Alice with an engaging innocence and an astonishing grace and athleticism ( her part requires high-wire acrobatics, which Hirte always makes believable, even as she's amazing you with her abilities ) .
There's the magic of the creative team of Mara Blumenfeld ( costumes like you've never seen ) , Dan Hostling ( a set that utilizes the performance space of the Lookingglass theater as if it were created for this production ) , Chris Binder ( evocative and sometimes shocking lighting effects ) , Andre Pluess ( sound design ) , and Sylvia Hernandez-DiStasi, whose circus choreography enriches the production with the kind of derring-do seldom seen outside Cirque du Soleil.
And, of course, there's magic in an ensemble that can embody the likes of Carroll's backward-aging White Queen, the Mad Hatter, Cheshire Cat, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, the Dormouse, Caterpillar, a monstrous Red Queen, among others, with remarkable quick-change artistry that's completely captivating.
Lookkinglass Alice is a dream-like experience, with its own embraceable dream logic, underlying the experience of childhood, and viewed with complete conviction through a child's eyes. It is a true theatrical departure from reality and is appropriate for all but the very youngest viewers.
Alice has become kind of a signature production for Lookkinglass and any handwriting analyst could tell you that this is one signature heady with creative inclinations.